High power floating voltage and current (VI) sources are used for testing field effect transistors (FETs) or other electronic circuits commonly referred to here as a device under test (DUT). Four quadrant operation of these instruments can be configured in force current (I) mode and in force voltage (V) mode, which includes high current and high precision metering for full spectrum of tests. One operational challenge is to control the amount of energy entering into the DUT in response to the changes of the VI source, which may include over current shutdowns and/or short circuit defects created during a high voltage or high current test. Typically, the DUT being tested can be expected to respond much faster than the VI source. This may result in a high energy influx to the DUT caused by the delay in time between when the DUT behavior changes and when the VI source responds to the change. During this delay, the DUT may temporarily reach range limits before the clamp levels of the VI source can be enforced. A single defective device driven event may damage hardware and circuit boards causing tester down time and costly repairs.